Compositional Diversity Protocol

Created and maintained by the Office of Marketing and Communications 

Guiding principles

The Office of Marketing and Communications (OMC) understands and acknowledges: 

• the audience inclusion imperative - that a broad range of audiences from diverse populations must be able to visualize and see themselves as part of Messiah's Christian educational community;
• that diversity in Messiah's marketing communications should include a broad range of factors including, but not limited to age, gender, ethnicity, race, culture, ability, Christian faith traditions, and diversity of setting with regard to curricular/co-curricular and academic disciplines.
• the value and importance of communicating and depicting an authentic, hospitable, inclusive campus environment; 
• that inclusive excellence is qualitative as well as quantitative;
  • i.e. that inclusive excellence in marketing communications includes a visible mix of compositionally diverse photography and video, but also includes visible and transparent access to Messiah’s quantitative data related to the diversity of the Messiah community. 
• the importance of the University’s diversity goals and how the quality of our work can positively support those goals;
• the challenges of Messiah’s aspirations related to diversity versus Messiah’s current reality, and the ongoing tension of striving to bring these into balance when determining how best to practice inclusive excellence in marketing;
• the importance of being sensitive to, and not to disrespectfully single out, any specific group or persons when capturing images or video in an effort to ensure inclusive excellence; and that the integrity of marketing hinges on authenticity.
• Note: In 2019, the Office of Marketing and Communications requested to meet with the Multicultural Council to discuss this compositional diversity protocol, listen, gather feedback and discuss how their members can help with photo authenticity, recruiting friends and classmates for photo shoots, social media take-overs for their MCC clubs, etc. This has been, and will continue to be, a valuable interaction that will help to continue to inform and adapt these guiding principles.

Specific communications protocols

Photography and video

• Photographers and videographers are instructed to capture (as respectfully and authentically as possible) images/footage that depicts a broad range of diversity at events and in natural settings including age, gender, ethnicity, race, culture, Christian faith traditions, special abilities, curricular/co-curricular and academic disciplines.
• Posed groups of students are intentionally and respectfully organized to include gender, ethnic and racial diversity whenever possible.
• Academic classroom photography is organized to ensure the capture of images that include educators and students from a mix of genders and underrepresented populations.
• Campus videos produced by OMC are developed to depict a broad range of diversity including age, gender, ethnicity, race, culture, Christian faith traditions, special abilities, curricular/co-curricular and academic disciplines.
• The department’s digital image library includes photos/subjects representing a wide range of diverse and underrepresented populations that are easily accessible to the department and the campus community for usage in print and digital communications.
• To ensure respect and authenticity, the Marketing and Communications Office will never digitally alter any photography or video with respect to an individual’s age, gender, ethnicity, race, culture, or any other factors related to compositional diversity.

The Bridge magazine

• Feature story ideas for The Bridge, Messiah’s magazine, are proposed, developed, and affirmed by the president and the vice president for advancement based upon magazine objectives and are also evaluated on the quantitative and qualitative representation of underrepresented populations and perspectives not only issue-by-issue but also over several previous issues.
• Contributors and those quoted or highlighted in feature stories are selected to ensure a broad range of diversity including age, gender, ethnicity, race, culture, Christian faith traditions, special abilities, curricular/co-curricular and academic disciplines.
• Alumni profiles are selected to ensure inclusion of underrepresented populations.
• Each issue’s images are selected and collectively evaluated to ensure both quantitative and qualitative inclusion of underrepresented populations.
• Thumbnail pages of the magazine are hung up in the design suite throughout the production cycle of the magazine to monitor diversity within photo selections for each issue as that issue is developed.
• Cover designs are reviewed by the president and the vice president of advancement and are evaluated and selected to ensure diversity over a span of publishing cycles.
• Individuals in any staged group photos are selected to ensure inclusion of various ethnicities represented on campus.
• Stories for the “Faces and Places” and “Brainwaves” departments of The Bridge are selected to ensure diversity across a span of issues.
• The editor’s and executive director’s final review for the magazine before it goes to the printer includes a review to ensure compositional diversity has remained intact throughout the various and lengthy editing and revision phases of the magazine.

Print marketing communications

• Print publications and ads for which OMC is the client, and also admissions ads and publications, are evaluated to ensure a broad range of diversity images including age, gender, ethnicity, race, culture, Christian faith traditions, special abilities, curricular/co-curricular and academic disciplines.
  • However, it should be noted that we have many clients who typically provide images for their publications. We do advise, but do not have a final decision on selecting the images for all of Messiah’s external communications.
• Student recruitment brochures are hung up in the design suite as they are completed to evaluate them for inclusive excellence as a body of content.

Messiah website and digital marketing

• Images on areas of messiah.edu that OMC creates and maintains (home page, admissions, and academic major pages for example) are selected to ensure inclusion of under-represented populations in a way that best meets the communication goals of those sites.
• Home page banner images are selected to ensure a broad range of diversity over time including age, gender, ethnicity, race, culture, special abilities, Christian faith traditions, curricular/co-curricular and academic disciplines.
• Digital ads for which OMC is the client, and also admissions digital ads, are evaluated to ensure a broad range of diversity images including age, gender, ethnicity, race, culture, Christian faith traditions, special abilities, curricular/cocurricular and academic disciplines.

Other communications and editorial content

• Images for the University’s front entrance digital sign are selected and provided to the conference services office which populates the sign with the images, to ensure a broad range of diversity including age, gender, ethnicity, race, culture, Christian faith traditions, special abilities, curricular/co-curricular and academic disciplines.
• Images and content on campus marquees and other site marketing displays are selected to ensure a broad range of diversity throughout including age, gender, ethnicity, race, culture, Christian faith traditions, special abilities, curricular/cocurricular and academic disciplines.

Questions

Questions regarding this protocol may be directed to Carla Gross, associate vice president of marketing and communications, at cgross@messiah.edu.